Hi – I’m Polly, one of the International Journalism MA students from Cornwall, UK, who will be taking part in the World Have Your Say programme next week…here is my first blog.

I wonder how many of you have donated to charity recently?

Just eight days after the earthquake hit Haiti, donations in excess of $305 million had been received and are still pouring in now. We trust charities as a matter of course and most have an exemplary record, but there have been many examples where their conduct has been called into question.

There are commissions and regulators that are responsible for monitoring charities, but this gets particularly difficult when organisations are operating overseas. And what happens when a charity receives too many donations for the cause it has earmarked?

It’s reported that the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies received more than $3 billion for tsunami relief in 2004, but five years down the road, it still had about $500 million left over. The US site Worth gives an ‘Elite List’ list of what it calls its ‘Ten Most Fiscally Responsible Charities’.

Its ‘top’ charity gives ninety-three cents of every dollar donated to its programmes, demonstrating that there are many charities out there doing incredible work. In comparison, The Canadian Association of the Blind (not to be confused with the Canadian. National Institute for the Blind) was stripped of its charity status when it raised $1.5 million in three years, and spent just $10,912 on charitable works.

Do we need to take more time when deciding which charity to give our money to?

Are smaller organisations sometimes more efficient than global charities?

20 Responses to “Is it good to give?”

All organizations will have some overhead, unless it’s completely run by volunteers that don’t have to pay any sort of rent or utility. Some of the charities, well, the overhead is part of the services. I donate lots of money to animal shelters, for example.

Yes Polly,I do give to charities but only long standing ones.I once gave a man in a wheelchair two fifty p. pieces,I could not get them into the tin,so I put them in his hand and took a sticker from him,as I walked away I glanced round and he was putting them into his pocket.That was the last street collection I ever gave to,or ever will.Good luck with your prog.Probably more to say next week.

Natural disasters are no respecter of international borders or culture but stalk round the globe striking where they please… If we can see our own land as being vulnerable to natural or political disasters, it behoves us to give aid to other victims, as we would (and will) expect same if and when our land is attacked.. The theme is that ..” WHAT IS WORTH HAVING IS ALSO WORTH GIVING TO OTHERS “. How would you feel being at the receiving end, without any giver ?

It is good to give – but a fair but possibly ‘UnCharitable’ observation is that I notice that it seems to be mainly the ‘Freer’ countries that upkeep (- on a long term…) large charitable organisations and have a continual supply from their ‘donators’. Don’t see the rich from countries like China, Africa, Parkistan or the Arabic states etc, etc stepping up to help their own in a crisis, although they are happy to take handouts from the rest of the world!

I gave a little to Yele before the critisisms started, and now I wish I had looked into it more thoroughly. I really hope some of my contribution got into the hands of the people who really needed it,and I will definitely be researching more in the future before I give.

It is not good to give regardless the cause. It is way-out clause for any developed government to avoid it’s responsibilities with in a country or world wide. The more one gives the less a government will do. Charity has no place in our world.

Hummm….. why are the mods being selective about the ‘charities’ it posts?
The BBC is happy to name drop on the charities it has named above, but when I post a negative comment (twice now!) – about Cancer Research or Oxfam – it won’t go there?
Well BBC – What??? – Are these particular Charity – “Companies” too big and powerful for the rest of us that they cannot – EVER – do anything that warrants a negative comment then ? Isn’t this just a perfect example for this whole Topic !!!